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The 20 Most Sought-After IT Skills

SAP, network security, and business intelligence top this quarter’s list of the IT job skills that companies are paying more for. While the overall value of IT certifications continues to decline, holders of several key certs and skills have made significant gains in salary over the past six months. Find out which areas of IT are hot in our analysis of Foote Partners’ latest snapshot of IT skills and pay.

Foote Partners IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index tracks salaries for upwards of 21,000 IT professionals holding any of 330 skills and certifications in the US and Canada. It’s an invaluable resource for large companies looking to set salary ranges for employees, but it’s also a great source of data for those of us looking to plan the next move in an IT career. Foote’s press release on the most recent update to the ITSCPI does a great job of showing you which skills and certifications are hot and which are declining.

So which skills and certifications are hot right now? The Foote Partners data shows several recent IT industry trends continuing:

IT skills continue to increase in value, despite tough economic times. The IT industry remains a great place to be, despite a harsh economic climate. Pay is high and increasing, talented workers are in demand, and if you can pick up new skills, it’s easy to stay on a career path that’s growing faster than average. But staying on such a path means constantly keeping up with industry trends.

Certifications add less of a pay premium than they used to. You’ll still get a boost in pay for holding an IT certification, but according to Foote’s data, that premium continues to decline. Still, several groups of certifications – including security and project management – continue to appreciate.

Nontechnical skills are increasingly valuable. As employers continue to compete for the most talented IT workers, nontechnical business skills are becoming an important way for candidates to differentiate themselves from other qualified candidates. IT workers who understand how they fit into a company’s business are well-positioned to advance to high-level jobs.

Next: The 10 Most Sought-After IT Skills